Author Description

Published to accompany the exhibition, Leon Kossoff: A London Life, this fully illustrated catalog examines the paintings and drawings of one of Britain's most acclaimed living artists. With a catalogue raisonné of Kossoff's paintings in preparation, this is an apt moment to consider his oeuvre. The publication brings together masterworks from each period of the artist's career, demonstrating the unwavering rigor, the nuance and the psychological intensity of his output. The exhibition explores the artist's working practice and his creative environment. The city of his birth, London has played a central role in his career and many cityscapes will be on display - from Willesden Junction to Christ Church, Spitalfields. His friends and family have also contributed to his vision and the exhibition will reflect on the relationship between the artist and his models. Together, these landscape and figure paintings will present an irrefutable argument for Leon Kossoff's place in the canon of modern master painters. The publication has an introduction by Jackie Wullschlager (chief art critic for The Financial Times) and essays by Andrew Dempsey and Lulu Norman (writer and translator).